Euramax reaches next level with Sofon solution

Euramax Coated Products in Roermond has been supplying coil-coated aluminum all over the world for the past forty years. The colored aluminum coils are used in high-end architectural projects, like the new Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

“Our product range also makes us a market leader in innovation, partly thanks to our high-definition printed products for outdoor use,” explains Peter Wijers, responsible at Euramax for IT project management and business data-science.

At the start of 2016, Euramax implemented a new system combining product configuration and quotations – a software-based solution by Sofon in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. “Until then, the preliminary calculation used to be done in Excel. However, the growing number of functionalities, the complex calculations and the dependencies meant that was no longer adequate. We had been aware of Sofon for around eight years, but we weren’t yet ready to take the definitive step as a company. The tests demonstrated that Sofon would resolve our problems. The system enables us to structure data from the primary processes and manage it digitally. This lets us link the data from our warehouse more or less live to the product configurator.”

What’s unique about Euramax is that the company doesn’t operate with a static product catalogue. Where the client would normally have a limited number of choices, with Euramax every thickness, hardness and color can be combined. “The request process has been turned around completely with us. All the components we use are recorded at departmental level and are tested by the people who have the knowledge. In Sofon’s new system, the product configurator receives an update every half-hour, with data from the relevant departments. In this way, options that are no longer available are blocked and new options are released. This means that sales staff can only offer product choices which have been released.”

Implementation of the Sofon solution has enabled all the previously separate data systems to be linked and integrated into one system. “After requesting a product, a quotation follows automatically, processed in the document management system and the CRM. Where necessary, an e-mail is also sent for authorization of the quotation,” Wijers adds. “So the client always receives the right quotation.” Last November, the switch earned Euramax the Business Software Award during the Mikrocentrum Business Software Event. The jury praised Euramax’s widely accepted future-oriented strategy and the fact that significant efficiency improvements had been achieved across the full breadth of the operational processes.

From left to right at the Sofon stand during the Business Software Event 2016: Bert de Vries (Sofon), René Driessen (Euramax), Peter Wijers (Euramax), Johan Wolthuis (Sofon).